Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet
1745-1811

La volpe in un pollaio

Polli e pulcini

Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet

Pittore, incisore, illustratore francese (Parigi 1745-1811). Artista di facile vena, colorista brillante e disegnatore abilissimo, dipinse paesaggi, scene galanti, pastorali, mitologiche e soprattutto animali (Cane che assale due oche, Parigi, Louvre; Montoni e capre, Bourges, Musée du Berry). Il suo talento decorativo si esplicò anche al servizio delle manifatture dei Gobelins e di Beauvais. Illustrò le Favole di La Fontaine e le Bucoliche di Virgilio.

Jean-Baptiste Marie Huet

Jean-Baptiste Huet (Paris 1745 –1811) was a French painter, engraver and designer associated with pastoral and genre scenes of animals in the Rococo manner, influenced by François Boucher. Born into a family of artists — his uncle was Christophe Huet, his father Nicolas Huet — he apprenticed with the animal painter Charles Dagomer, a member of the painters' guild, the Académie de Saint-Luc, Paris, who was working in the 1760s. Huet’s interest in printmaking and his acquaintance with Gilles Demarteau, who later engraved many of his compositions, both date from this period. About 1764 Huet entered the studio of Jean-Baptiste Le Prince, where he further developed his printmaking skills, largely reproducing his own paintings, a method of publishing them with some profit.

In 1768 he was approved (agréé) by the Académie Royale, and 29 July 1769 he was received (reçu) in the minor category (petite manière) of painter of animals and was well received in the public reviews when he began to exhibit at the Paris Salon that same year, with a Dog Attacking Geese, now at the Louvre. He continued to exhibit annually until 1789, through his attempts at the grand manner of history painting, considered the noblest genre, were not met with approval. The most important of his paintings were his morceau de réception, the Fox among the Chickens (San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor), The Dairymaid (Paris, Musée Cognacq-Jay).

Huet is equally known for his designs for the decorative arts. He provided scenic vignettes to be printed by copperplate on cottons at the manufacture of toiles de Jouy directed by Oberkampf. Lengths of these may be seen at The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and many other institutions. His ink-and-wash drawings and studies of animals and children are also admired. In the 1780s he provided tapestry cartoons for the manufacture at Beauvais. A suite of thirteen hangings of pastorals was in the Isaac de Camondo bequest to the Louvre. In 1790 he remained attached to the reorganized and combined tapestry manufacture of Gobelins and Beauvais.

Jean-Baptiste Huet

Jean-Baptiste Huet est un peintre français, né à Paris le 22 octobre 1745 et mort dans la même ville le 22 août 1811. Fils de Nicolas Huet, peintre du garde-meuble du roi, Jean-Baptiste Huet fait son apprentissage auprès de Charles Dagomer (vers 1700 - vers 1768), membre de l'Académie de Saint-Luc. Il est ensuite agréé à l'Académie le 30 juillet 1768 et reçu académicien le 29 juillet 1769 comme peintre d'animaux avec une scène figurant « Un dogue se jetant sur des oies » (Paris, musée du Louvre). Il suit alors les conseils de Jean-Baptiste Le Prince à partir de 1769, et entre dans la mouvance des peintres de style rococo. Il expose régulièrement au Salon jusqu'en 1789, très encouragé par la critique. Son goût pour la gravure le lie alors très tôt avec Gilles Demarteau, lequel gravera nombre des œuvres de Huet, participant ainsi à la diffusion des compositions du peintre animalier.

Il a excellé dans les scènes pastorales et légères, les bergeries qui attestent de la filiation de style avec celui de François Boucher. Il travailla ainsi pour la manufacture de toiles de Jouy dirigée par Oberkampf en fournissant divers scènettes destinées à être imprimées sur des toiles de coton. On peut en voir de nombreux exemples au Detroit Institute of Arts, au Musée des Arts Décoratifs, au Victoria and Albert Museum et au Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ses œuvres furent très appréciées également pour servir de cartons de tapisserie à la manufacture de Beauvais. On en garde un très bel ensemble aujourd'hui conservé au Musée Nissim-de-Camondo. Vers 1790, Huet il est chargé de la réorganisation de la manufacture de Beauvais et des Gobelins.